By That is at least what Victor Cha wants to see happen in order to return the two American reporters detained in North Korea back to the US:
The United States needs to send a high-level envoy to North Korea to bring these women home. The obvious candidate would be Gore. The North Koreans would respect someone of his stature, and his stake in the issue would make his mission eminently credible. Without fear of setting or breaking diplomatic precedent, he could issue whatever “apologies” were necessary to secure the two women’s release; similar token apologies have been issued in the past.
Having participated in a mission to bring home the remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War, I know that such humanitarian efforts afford opportunities to move the larger diplomatic situation forward. Some say that Obama’s last message to North Korea was lost in the noise of Pyongyang’s missile test and the punitive response of the United Nations. Now that there is a momentary lull in the noise, Gore could reiterate the president’s message of peace and convey the administration’s willingness to engage, thereby averting further nuclear brinkmanship by Pyongyang.
Some will argue that we should not respond to North Korean extortion tactics. In principle, we should not. But the administration cannot stand by and watch these innocent women be thrown into the living hell of North Korean labor camps. Securing their safe passage home is the most important thing. And gaining a glimpse into the emerging leadership in North Korea would be useful. [Washington Post]
With all due respect to Mr. Cha, but what exactly has the State Dept. or anyone else in the US government done to “move the larger diplomatic situation forward”? If anything the larger diplomatic situation continues to go backwards ever since the first nuclear crisis in 1994. With that said I have been saying for sometime that something would be worked out to release the two reporters after a show trial of some sort.
The fact that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now giving legitimacy to the North Korean legal system that is about to put these two reporters on trial causes me to believe that some quid pro quo has already been worked out.
3:27 am on May 18th, 2009 1
I've been going over this and commenting about it at One Free Koreas, and I just can't work it out.
The level of silence by the US on the issue, coupled with other tidbits here and there, could make since if things have been worked out like you say – and had been worked out early on…
…but I just can't picture well enough to put my money on that.
It just doesn't seem to me to match what we know about North Korea….
I'm probably wrong, but my gut tells me this isn't what has happened. We'll have to wait until the women are able to speak for themselves, and I'm not even convinced that it is inevitable that they will be released in the near future. I think it is very likely, but I still give it a chance that one or both could be held for a significant length of time after the trial – and I'm talking about a year to years. I doubt it, but I think it is possible.
6:57 am on May 18th, 2009 2
The two journalists work for Al Gore's network, CurrentTV. Al Gore has remained silent on their detainment.
7:18 am on May 18th, 2009 3
On reading one of the posts at OFK's, I did some quick checking on an incident from the 1990s some of you might remember: the USFK helicopter that accidentally flew over the DMZ into NK territory and was shot down.
I went looking to see what happened while the surviving pilot was held. I vaguely remembered he wasn't held for very long. I also vaguely remembered that the US made a big deal about it from the start to get him back as soon as possible.
What I found was that — he was met by a foreign diplomat fairly early and from the start said that he was being well fed and allowed exercise time (and wasn't being beaten).
He had been roughed up a little by the NK soldiers in the area who initially got to him but not beyond that.
It was about a decade and a half ago – so it might not be worth much — but it gave me a little hope for the two reporters.
The American was a soldier and his craft had crossed into North Korean airspace.
But, then again, the chance of NK getting away with holding a US soldier long term in the mid-1990s was nil. They could much more easily get away with keeping reporters for several years…???